Capital City Centre forges ahead

Huge sheets of metal jut out of the ground and excavation equipment doing what it does best as work moves along on the $1 billion Capital City Centre project.

Site cleanup has been completed at the Colwood Corners property on Sooke Road and large metal shoring has been installed around the border of the site to prepare for excavation. Digging will go two stories down for underground parking. The shoring will be on two and a half sides of the property, providing stability to the ground.

Finishing up the shoring will take approximately another four weeks, after which the excavation will start. Everything behind the pilings will be dug down. The excavation will take around a month and a half to complete.

“It’s rolling ahead as quickly as we can push it,” said League Financial Partners founder Adam Gant. “It feels good to see that amount of work happen on the site.”

Units are moving well and, with the sales centre nearing completion, things will only pick up, Gant said.

It’s expected to be open in about four weeks, at which point people buying apartments will be able to come and select their units. The reservation list for the apartments is already filling up.

“We’re moving forward fast and furious now and it’s amazing to see the momentum build,” Gant said. “The further we get into the project the more and more people and the more and more resources get drawn into it. It’s exciting to see it picking up speed.”

The plan is to have the new London Drugs and everything around it, including an office building, a low-rise residential building and three retail buildings, completed by March 2014

The 1936 Tudor-style building that once housed the CrossRoads Bar and Grill is still sitting idle at the back of the property.

Gant said they are working on finalizing a deal for someone to purchase the building. Royal Roads is still interested, as are other groups including the Chamas First Nations Arts Society.

“We haven’t seen anything get finalized yet,” Gant said, “but we’re still certainly open to additional alternatives if people are interested.”